Related Species

Press releases

Hope soars for UK birds as new partnership signed

September 2022

Three leading conservation organisations have signed a new agreement that will help to secure the future of bird conservation in the UK...

Disease drives decline of another familiar garden bird

September 2022

A parasitic disease is responsible for the severe declines seen in both UK Greenfinch and Chaffinch populations, say scientists in a new open-access paper in Scientific Reports, a Nature Publishing journal...

Rare seabirds disturbed by Scottish marine traffic

September 2022

New research undertaken by the British Trust for Ornithology has shown that some seabirds that spend the winter months in inshore Scottish waters are highly sensitive to disturbance by marine traffic...

Link revealed between climate change and decline of a threatened UK migrant bird

August 2022

Researchers from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have used data gathered by volunteers to uncover how the decline in one Red-listed species is linked to climate-induced changes in its breeding behaviour...

Hope for endangered British bird as head-started young fly the nest

August 2022

The fortunes of 37 young Curlews, rescued as eggs from RAF airfields and reared in captivity, are being followed by scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)...

Record summer for ‘hummingbirds’ in UK gardens

August 2022

Data from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch survey, carried out by volunteers across the UK, show a fourfold increase in the number of gardens recording a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, making 2022 a record year...

Find a feather – a seaside treasure hunt

July 2022

At this time of year, most British Shelduck migrate across the North Sea to find a safe place to moult...

Bowie the Curlew flees from fire – but has his luck run out?

July 2022

Scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and University of East Anglia have tracked a Curlew on an amazing journey that recorded his close shave with a huge wildfire in central Portugal...

Some Don't Like it Hot

July 2022

New research from BTO implicates rising temperatures in the steep decline of the Willow Warbler, one of the UK’s most tuneful harbingers of spring...

Star speakers announced for 2022 Spurn Migfest

July 2022

Top ornithologists Martin Collinson and Alex Lees will give the headline talks at this year’s Spurn Migfest, taking place at East Yorkshire’s Spurn Bird Observatory between 9 and 11 September...

Farewell to PJ the super Cuckoo

June 2022

When scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) attached a satellite tag to a Cuckoo in Suffolk back in 2016, they had no idea that it would still be providing them with information on the amazing movements of these birds in 2022...

Search begins for the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder

May 2022

The BTO and the Spurn Bird Observatory Trust are once again on the lookout for the UK’s best young birders...

Time to help monitor the birds you love

April 2022

Your birdwatching skills can really help in the conservation of the UK’s birds...

Can citizen science provide a solution for bat-friendly planning?

April 2022

A new study, published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, has used a novel ‘citizen science’ approach to deliver much-needed information on bat distribution and activity, information that can be used to support planning decisions and effective mitigation measures...

New study offers hope that conservation can help nature adapt to climate change

April 2022

A new study, reviewing a suite of published scientific research, provides evidence that conservation action can help species adapt to a changing climate...

Herons and Scottish Islands

March 2022

The British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) Heronries Census is one of the longest running bird surveys in the world but there are knowledge gaps for Grey Herons on some of the Scottish Islands and BTO needs help to fill them...

Britain’s BirdTrack birdwatchers share vital non-bird observations with national iRecord

March 2022

BirdTrack, organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) as a birdwatcher’s online notebook, has just submitted over a quarter of a million observations of other wildlife to iRecord, a national wildlife data collection website operated by the Biological Records Centre( BRC), providing information that is vital in helping to understanding the health of all of our wildlife, not just birds...

Place your bets on where gulls might turn up in winter

March 2022

New research, led by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), has used state-of-the-art GPS tags to provide insights into the lives of Herring Gulls breeding in Scotland and northern England during the winter months...

Northern Ireland’s seabirds experience mixed fortunes: Rathlin’s cliffs are groaning with Guillemots but Fulmar are in free-fall.

March 2022

The latest report from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Northern Ireland Seabird Report 2021, charts the most recent ups and downs of country’s seabirds and it shows a mixed bag...

Swallows have started spending the winter in Britain instead of migrating 6,000 miles to South Africa, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.

March 2022

The change in behaviour is one of the most remarkable signs yet of the warming world being caused by climate change, according to the BTO’s Chief Executive, Juliet Vickery...

A burning question: how does timing of breeding of upland birds affect risk posed by moorland burning?

February 2022

There is considerable public interest in how our uplands are managed, one area of concern being about the potential for rotational burning of vegetation to impact on nesting birds...

First year of a four-year survey discovers five new species of bat for the Bailiwick of Guernsey

February 2022

The most extensive bat survey carried out by citizen scientists in the Bailiwick of Guernsey using remote automated recorders has found several new species of bat and a new species of bush-cricket for the islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Sark, as well as collecting almost three-quarters of a million sound recordings of bats, small terrestrial mammals, bush-crickets and audible moth species...

Was bird monitoring immune to COVID-19?

February 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the UK just as birdwatchers were gearing up for the annual campaign to survey the UK’s breeding birds...

The BB/BTO Best Bird Book of the Year 2021

February 2022

British Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology announce the winner of the award for Best Bird Book of the Year 2021...

Volunteers provide vital new information on the UK's breeding Tawny Owls

February 2022

Thanks to the efforts of nearly 10,000 'citizen scientists' we now have a much greater understanding of the UK's breeding Tawny Owls, together with much-needed information on their calling behaviour, that will help future surveys of the species...

Extinct Chernobyl eagle back from the dead

January 2022

Rare Greater Spotted Eagles have returned to the Chernobyl area after going extinct before the accident...

Garden birds that head north for the winter

December 2021

Research, from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), in collaboration with Oxford University and Max Planck Institute, Germany, has uncovered the unusual migration of Blackcaps into UK gardens for the winter months...

A quiet Christmas? How Britain & Ireland’s breeding birds fared in 2021

December 2021

The latest results from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) report a poor year for many of our birds, largely due to a cooler and wetter spring than average...

The Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder of the Year

December 2021

Fifteen year-old Corin Woodhead, from Scotland, was named Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder of the Year in the senior category and ten year old Levi Gravett in the junior category, at the 2021 Spurn Migration Festival, ahead of four other young finalists (two in each category) and 15 young birders who entered this year's competition...

Hampshire Ornithologist receives recognition from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)

December 2021

Tony Davis received the BTO’s Bernard Tucker Medal for his scientific contributions to the trust and British Ornithology...

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